More Defiance Character Profiles? Sure, Why Not?

Posted on April 14, 2013 by geelw

Meet Kenya, Irisa, Nolan, Datak, Stahma Tarr and a few more guys and gals you’ll want to see more of once this new show gets its hooks into you. I’ll check out the entire first season to see if I like what’s going on, but based on all the pre-production videos, teasers, clips and yes, all those gameplay videos, a play session and a few other things, I’ll say this is one worth checking out.

That and hell, it sure beats the crap out of another Sharktopus movie, that’s for damn sure… Continue reading →

Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut Random Screenshot of the Day: Art Appreciation (2)…

Posted on April 13, 2013 by geelw

As far as I can tell, Greenvale doesn’t have much of an art “scene”, but if you look around, you’ll see art in the strangest places. Sure, you can stroll about and see the occasional park sketch artist of passers-by and trees and such, and yes indeed there are pet painters and a few brave folks who paint in public for all to admire (or not). But I’d say the most gruesomely gorgeous art has to be by the Red Seeds Killer, who’s a bit hard to track down for a one-on-one interview session. Granted, posing for one of his works means you’re probably not going to make it home for supper, but chalk that up to him being a truly modern artist reinventing the medium on a few levels because he refuses to die for his art like some have done in the past. Of course, killing one’s models in order to create is kind of a not so nice way to make a living, so it’s a great thing he’s only in a very strange video game and not a real-life personality. Er, don’t go telling this to FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan (just call him York!), as I think that would upset his investigation somewhat…

Can you EVEN imagine a documentary about an artist who kills his or her subjects but becomes hugely popular because of that way of making art? Yikes. Of course, this isn’t going to happen (well, not THIS year), but you can kinda sorta pretend you’re part of a crazy performance art piece when you play Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut, headed exclusively to the PlayStation 3 from Rising Star Games. Featuring over 100 improvements over the original game, refined HD graphics, PlayStation Move and 3D TV support, all-new DLC and more, it’s basically an art appreciation AND game appreciation class all in one for less than it costs to hit a few real museums (well, if you only go to museums where you have to pay admission to get in)…

Speaking of artistic things, Game Director Swery 65 often gets into the picture in a few ways even if he’s not doing anything but waking up in the morning. Thanks to his controversial creation, fans are always sending him artwork of all types and to any creative person, this sort of praise by creation is more often than not a welcome thing to experience. If I were a LOT less busy strolling around Greenvale and seeing the sights, I’d try and whip up a little something of my own to share with him. But alas, I’m so tied up with stuff to do that I can barely get these daily updates out on time. Man, if I could only think up SOMETHING clever to show him I’m just as big a fan of his work as anyone. Hmmm… I’ll come up with some way one of these days….

Defiance Ark Hunter Chronicles “Director’s Cut”: Turning The Pages Before A New Chapter Begins…

Posted on April 13, 2013 by geelw

Of course, with two days to go, the Defiance YouTube page is absolutely *exploding!* with all sorts of neat character profiles from the show and more, which I’ll run in a bit. But I wanted to finish up this digital comic mini-series by running the “Director’s Cut” version. I’m usually not much of a fan of this style of animation (hey, I grew up watching those awful Marvel cartoons from the 60’s, so seeing not much has changed other than the talent is a lot better is kind of grimly depressing. Or really funny – I can’t decide). Anyway, Defiance premieres on Monday, April 15 at 9PM EST of syfy.

Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut Random Screenshot of the Day: It’s A Dog’s Life…

Posted on April 12, 2013 by geelw

“Spotted dogs have appeared throughout history in Europe, Asia, and Africa, credited with a dozen nationalities and as many native names. The dog we know today as the Dalmatian has been a dog of war, a draft dog, shepherd, ratter, fire-apparatus follower, firehouse mascot, bird dog, trail hound and retriever. Most importantly, he is the original and only coaching dog. His affinity for horses remains a basic instinct to this day and the breed is a natural follower and guardian of the horse-drawn vehicle.”

Source: American Kennel Club

So, now that you know you don’t need 101 (or 102) Dalmatians at all to keep a child safe, ladies and gents… just one really well-trained one. The again, I’d bet a forest full of those spotted dogs would be keeping that creepy Red Seeds Killer a bit more at bay (pun intended) and FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan (just call him York!) a lot less busy…

Anyway, make sure you don’t go howling at the moon yourself because you missed out on picking up a copy of Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut, headed exclusively to the PlayStation 3 on April 30, 2013 from Rising Star Games. Featuring over 100 improvements over the original game, refined HD graphics, PlayStation Move and 3D TV support, all-new DLC and MORE. You’ll only find out what a dog and small child are doing mixed up in all this only if you play the game (no, the ghost of W.C. Fields isn’t in the game at all, but it would be funny to those who remember his work), so now that you’re curious, you can get on board the same train to Greenville a lot of us are already riding.

Off topic (woof!), Yesterday was Game Director Swery 65’s birthday! For real! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! OK, because I didn;t know about this until after the fact, I didn’t get him a gift at all. Er, except that post I wrote for that day, so I feel a bit bad about that. The again, he really liked the post, so it’s all good in the end. I suppose it WOULD be bad form to let him know what MY birthday is (it’s coming up next month), but if he asks me, I’ll let him know right away…

Soul Sacrifice: Keiji Inafune Chats Up His Vita Exclusive…

Posted on April 12, 2013 by geelw

Yes, it’s almost here (April 30) and SCEA is dropping another behind the scenes video and site updates, this time focusing on game designer Keiji Inafune and his latest creation headed exclusively to the PlayStation Vita. Between great-looking games like this, a library that’s growing steadily thanks to indies, imports and some fine third-party titles, 2013 should be a pretty solid year for Sony’s handheld. Well, I think so. Sony needs to kick it up a notch and do some price dropping on the hardware and memory cards so more can buy in and get playing some of these stellar titles…

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen Enemies Video: Eight Million (More) Ways To Die…

Posted on April 12, 2013 by geelw

Gran Soren just got a whole lot more dangerous. Seriously. Granted, it already WAS pretty deadly as it was teeming with all creatures great and small wanting to grind your party’s bones to make their bread (or a tasty filling for that bread), but the mad wizards at Capcom have worked in plenty of new not so wee beasties guaranteed to send you into a frenzy of running away if you’re too weak a character to handle it. On the other hand, if you’ve got the buff stuff and no bluff, you can tough it to those creatures rough until they’d had more than enough. Yeah, I liked Basil Wolverton’s bizarre comics as a kid, so sue me. Or go track down some of his freaky funnies.

Anyway, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen (coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 23, 2013) brings you the COMPLETE original game, ALL the DLC packs AND an entirely new adventure all for a measly $40. This means your friends who missed out can hop in and start off and see what’s what, while YOU, dear reader (well, if you played the original) can upload your save files and beat up on those bruisers with relish. Well, the relish they were going to slather all over that bread they were going to get to baking…

Mystic Chronicles: Meet The Heroes (1): Four On The Floor, Ready For Action…

Posted on April 12, 2013 by geelw

With Kemco’s “old-school” JRPG Mystic Chronicles coming to the PSP this summer from Natsume, the company is dropping a few names and giving players a chance to meet the cast and learn a little bit about them. Say hello to them below and check out the screenshot gallery I posted back in February for some images of the gameplay. All we need now are some videos of this in action and that particular triangle is completed…

Anyway, here they are:

Lux

Lux is the main character of Mystic Chronicles, and the player will control him for the majority of the game. This young man may seem like a simple village boy, but he’s surrounded by a mysterious past that may come back to haunt him. He’s very close to his sister, Fina…

Fina is a nun who players will meet early in the story. Strangely, this woman of the cloth looks a lot like Lux’s sister, Fina. Is there some sort of connection between the two ladies? Lux is determined to find out…

Ray

Ray is a mysterious member of the ancientDarkClan – and whether that connection will be blessed or cursed remains to be seen…

Alberto has known Lux since he was a child. A mentor to the youth and a captain in the Holos Guild, Alberto’s guidance will become pivotal in some of the difficult decisions Lux’s journey will lead him to make.

Hmmm… My nostalgia sense is REALLY tingling now… all we need is a release date. Natsume won’t disappoint on that end, but you’ll need to wait a bit because that’s how they roll. Back with more on Mystic Chronicles as news arrives – stay tuned…

The Women Of Defiance: All The Ladies In The House Say (Whatever The Hell They Want To)…

Posted on April 12, 2013 by geelw

Not just eyeball candy for the guys, these special ladies are a going to be a big part of what makes the upcoming show guaranteed to reel in viewers of both sexes who like strong female characters who get to go toe to toe on a few levels with the men in their brave new world. It should be quite intriguing to see how well this cast does over time across the viewership, as there are a lot of interesting personalities the cast has to work with and I’m sure the writing team will have a hard time if they need to get rid of any of these characters in an upcoming storyline. As always, we shall see…

GRID 2 Multiplayer Hands-On: It’s Like Lightning (But With Better Handling)…

Posted on April 12, 2013 by geelw

The single player in GRID 2 was quite thrilling in that demo from a few months back, but Codemasters knows that many will be snapping up this one first and foremost for the multiplayer modes and fortunately, the game shines even more here. A few members from the dev team rolled into NYC with a new demo that just so happened to be on the same day and in the same hotel as Namco Bandai’s Global Gamer’s Day, so it made for an exciting start to a long day packed full of great upcoming titles. The Xbox 360 version was set up (and looking fantastic, by the way), but being the only writer to pop up at this first session meant playing against the people working on the game and only having the slimmest of chances of beating any of them during the bunch of races about to take place… Continue reading →

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon: Not A Joke After All, But Full Of Laughs Nonetheless…

Posted on April 12, 2013 by geelw

OK, other than clicking on the page on April 1 and entering the Konami Code on my keyboard to blow up all the stuff on the site with clicks, I ignored this “game” because it was pretty obvious that it was an April Fool’s gag gone viral. Hell, NO ONE would make a game like that after Duke Nukem Forever, Bulletstorm and a few other humor-centric shooters didn’t exactly set the world on fire. That and hell, Crytek was too busy working on stuff like Warface, Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3 DLC plus whatever else they’re cooking up, so this HAD to be a big, fat joke. Welllll, to quote Ah-nuld in that gun shop scene from The Terminator… WRONG.

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is not only real, it’s a standalone game that doesn’t require owning the original version of Far Cry 3 to play, looks completely nuts and sorry to say, isn’t going COMPLETELY old school because it’s a DIGITAL-ONLY release. Hell, if Ubisoft were smarter about this retro thing, they’d get this out in a LIMITED edition for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and sell it on that fake online shop they’ve set up on the Blood Dragon site. Do one run and that’s it for physical copies. They’d certainly get the attention of core gamers, collectors and those who just want more options in how they play their games, that’s for sure.

Hopefully Ubisoft and their PR will pay attention to my non-negotiable demands and make this happen as a retail product – I can see a bunch of people snapping this up if it’s packing the heat they expect.